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Will ONEOK's (OKE) Acquisition Reflect in Q3 Earnings?

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ONEOK, Inc. (OKE - Free Report) is scheduled to release third-quarter 2017 results after the closing bell on Oct 31. Last quarter, this utility company reported a negative earnings surprise of 26.7%. Let’s see how things are shaping up prior to this announcement.

Factors to Consider

The second quarter ended with ONEOK acquiring ONEOK Partners, and is likely to be accretive to distributable cash flow from 2017 through 2021. ONEOK Partners’ financial strength, diversified operations, excellent market connectivity and systematic investments in organic projects and strategic acquisitions provide ONEOK a distinct competitive advantage. We expect some of the benefits of the buyout to reflect in the quarter to be reported.     

The company announced that its Mont Belvieu, TX complex did not experience significant loss from the impact of Hurricane Harvey and remains operational. However, some of the ONEOK's assets operated at reduced volumes primarily due to temporary refinery and petrochemical facility outages and restraints on its customers' ability to receive natural gas liquids (NGL) products. We expect Hurricane Irma to have partial impact on the earnings. ONEOK's earnings are projected to be 45 cents per share reflecting no sequential rise.

For the third quarter, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for revenues is pegged at $2,800 million, indicating 33.2% year over year and 8.6% sequential increase.

Earnings Whispers

Our proven model does not conclusively show that ONEOK is likely to beat earnings this quarter. That is because a stock needs to have both a positive Earnings ESP and a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), 2 (Buy) or 3 (Hold) to be able to beat consensus estimates. But that is not the case here, as you will see below.You can uncover the best stocks to buy or sell before they’re reported with our Earnings ESP Filter.

Zacks ESP: The Earnings ESP, which represents the difference between the Most Accurate estimate of 44 cents and the Zacks Consensus Estimate of 45 cents is -1.91%.

Zacks Rank: Though ONEOK’s Zacks Rank #2 increases the predictive power of the ESP, however its negative ESP makes surprise prediction difficult.

Note that we caution against stocks with Zacks Ranks #4 or 5 (Sell-rated stocks) going into the earnings announcement, especially when the company is seeing negative estimate revisions.

ONEOK, Inc. Price and EPS Surprise

Stocks to Consider

Instead, here are a few players from the industry that have the right combination of elements to post an earnings beat this quarter.

Spire Inc. (SR - Free Report) has an Earnings ESP of +9.09%. It carries Zacks Rank #2 and is expected to report fourth-quarter fiscal 2017 results on Nov 15. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

ONE Gas, Inc. (OGS - Free Report) has an Earnings ESP of +5.46%. The company carries a Zacks Rank #3 and is anticipated to report third-quarter 2017 earnings on Oct 30.

South Jersey Industries, Inc. has an Earnings ESP of +33.33%. It carries Zacks Rank #3 and is expected to report third-quarter 2017 earnings on Nov 2.

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